Ghost
by hiddden magic
Summary: What if Booth had to play 'dead' longer than originally intended? Takes place around 'Wannabe in the weeds'
1. Gone

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bones, or the characters...unfortunately. The story, however, is mine.**

Hey, I know this is a pretty short chapter, but it's basically the intro. I have a general idea about where I want this story to end up, but reviews will help me get there, so please don't be shy!

Dr. Temperance Brennan had kept herself composed and together...at least on the outside. Little did anyone know how difficult it was to follow her daily routine. Everything in the Jeffersonian seemed to remind Brennan of him, her beloved ex-partner Special Agent Seeley Booth. The loss was most painful for Brennan, because Booth was _her _partner, and they had grown so close over the past years. Since his death, she often had to remind herself of the tip she had told Zack._ Put your heart in a box._ The little trick didn't seem to be working like it used to, partially because besides the pain she felt a deep twinge of guilt. If only Booth wouldn't have died taking a bullet for her.

Brennan was so angry at herself for thinking about Booth as much as she had been recently. _Are these feelings real, or am I simply imagining them? _She couldn't believe she was even considering this, but without thinkg, she answered her own question. _Of course they are real! You can't feel something if it's not real. It may be wrong, but that doesn't make it false._ About a hundred thoughts rushed through her head as she tried to justify what she had just been thinking.

"Brennan," Angela's voice brought her back to reality. "You're not getting out of this. You promised me you would come. I need you there."

"I know, I'm coming." She wished she had been able to turn down Angela's desperate pleas. Brennan did not want to go to the Booth's funeral.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" There was a sincere curiosity and worry in the eyes of Brennan's best friend.

As genuinely as possible, Brennan answered, "Yes, I'm fine." She hoped Angela would buy it, and not see that she was also trying to convince herself.

Angela decided to drop the conversation, taking note that something was definietly going unsaid, but if Brennan wasn't ready to talk about it, then she would just have to wait. They walked through the parking lot in silence, and remained that way as Angela drove to the church where the unfortunate ceremony was to take place.

LIKE I SAID...SHORT. PLEASE REVIEW WHETHER YOU LIKED IT OR NOT. IT'LL REALLY HELP ME :]

kk


	2. Why are you here?

**Sorry it took so long. This chapter was fun :] I hope you enjoy it.**

***

The funeral was just a blur in the mind of Dr. Temperance Brennan. She hated funerals. Plain and simple, but this one, it was different. She didn't hate it for her normal reasons. This funeral made her sad and hurt. She had spent the majority of the ceremony, being polite and pretending to pay attention, but her mind wasn't focused. She was trying to concentrate on her current case. Thinking about work took her to a special place where she was seperated from intense feelings and emotions, and she could focus on facts, where everything was either true or it wasn't.

By the time it was over, Brennan had become exhausted from denying her feelings, so she left in a hurry. She grabbed some chinese takeout and drove quickly to her apartment. Picking at the food she bought, Brennan couldn't enjoy it. Chinese food was something she did with Booth, and as ridiculous as it sounds, it didn't taste the same. Brennan was not usually one to waste food, seeing as she had stayed with people who would kill to eat the food she enjoyed daily, but she threw the uneaten food out anyways. After a long hot shower, she dressed in sweats and a tank top and stared at the clock by her bed. 7:15…_that's it? Only 7:15?_ What could one possibly do to pass time, until it seemed reasonable to go to sleep? To do anything enjoyable to Brennan, she would have to be able to think, and concentrate. She was still holding back tears, not wanting to admit to herself how much she really cared for Booth, and this was blocking her concentration. So she plopped down on her bed and fell asleep, not under the covers, and the lights were still on.

***

It was morning, and Brennan was running late. She burst through the doors of the Jeffersonian as she tucked some folders under her arm and pulled up her soft brown hair. As she finished tying it up, Angela had grabbed her arm that wasn't busy holding folders and dragged Brennan into her office. Angela's office was nice. She had artwork on the walls and it always felt welcoming…until you were being forced into it for no known reason.

"Angela, what is it? I've got work to do and I'm already late…"

She was cut off, "Trust me, this is important."

Brennan was annoyed, she hated being late and now she was starting to get antsy. "Okay, what is it?"

"I wanted to let you know before you found out yourself, but I'm not so sure how to say it, or if I should have just let you find out on your own, but I decided it would be better if I told you so…"

Brennan ignored Angela's pointless rambling and left the office, heading to the platform to examine the latest skeleton. Angela followed, trying to get her to come back.

"Hey guys sorry I'm late" Brennan wasted no time snapping on gloves and starting mumbling to herself about the remains she was looking at.

Angela ran up to the platform, but she was too late to warn Bennan.

"Hello Temperance." She recognized the voice, it didn't belong. In an instant she had lost all focus, stood up, and whipped around.

"Sully?" Brennan was confused, why was he here!

"Yeah, Director Cullen sent me here. "

"Why?" she was beginning to get mad, if her was here for the single most obvious reason, she was probably going to hit him.

"Why are you here!" she repeated the question loudly, not bothoring to hide her emotions.

He looked a little hurt. "I'm here to take Booth's position. I'm sorry about what happened with him."

"You can't waltz back into my life, and my job. And you can NOT replace Booth!"

Angry, most definitly angry. As she yelled, she felt her eyes betray her and start watering, and soon after that a tear traveled down her cheeck. She pulled back her arm and threw it forward in one swift motion, her knuckles connecting with his jaw. Sully's head jerked, as he wasn't expecting to be punched.

"Dr. Brennan!" Cam scolded as she rushed over to restrain Brennan before she attacked Sully, but Brennan just walked away without a word.

The corners of her mouth twitched as she tried not to smile. She should have felt bad for hurting Sully, and she knew it, but she couldn't help feeling a little relieved after hitting him. Booth would be proud.

***

**Okay, I must say, I'm proud of myself for finding a way to let Brennan punch someone...I think she deserves it. Please reveiw, whether you liked it or not. I'd love to get some suggestions.**

Also : I'm leaving to go camping, and there's not internet obvisouly, so unfortunately, I can't type anymore for about a week, but while I'm there, I'll probably do alot of writing on paper, so maybe when I get back I'll have a couple chapters ready, depending on reviews.


	3. Make a list

**I wrote this from Booth's point of view. It was inspired by ariacle.**

**Thanks for all my reviews, it really does help me write:] I liked this one. please let me know what you think.**

***

He was awake. His eyes were closed, but he was awake. _Where the hell am I?_ He started to move, but stopped abruptly, as a pain shot through him. He heard a beep, it was steady and constant, every few seconds. _I have to open my eyes,_ he thought, though he honestly did not want to. He wanted to drift back to a painless peaceful sleep.

_One…_

_Two…_

_Three.._

He blinked his eyes open, surprised when he saw mostly darkness. He had expected it to be light. Looking around he realized he was in a hospital. Not wanting to think about why he was there, he closed his eyes again.

_At least the beeping is a good kind of beeping. Not like a bomb or anything._ He made mental notes, trying to think posotively. Deciding it was time to figure out why he was laying in an uncomfortable hospital bed, he tried to remember what happened.

"Booth?" His thoughts were interrupted, but he didn't mind. Had it been someone else to disturb his concentration, he may have been annoyed, but it was never a bad thing to hear _her_ voice.

"Bones?" He questioned, even thought he knew without a doubt that it was her.

He heard a click, and a dim light came to life. " Yeah it's me. Do you remember anything?"

"Umm… yeah, I remember…" he tried to think. He remember the sweet sound of Brennans voice, she was singing. They were at…a kareoke bar. The whole gang of squints were there, along with their fearless leader, Cam. It was sort of a celebration, because they solved a case. Pam. Pamela Nunan was there, just watching. Empty eyes staring at Brennan, who was performing. She moved ever so slightly, but Booth saw it. He was too good an agent to miss such a small, yet important movement. A gun, he remembered the gun, and the overwhelming need to protect someone. Someone he loved. _Loved?_ He pushed the thought out of his mind, and chose to decode that one later. He kept trying to remember what happened.

"I felt a sharp throbbing pain, you were standing over me, but I don't remember hitting the floor… then it all goes black, until I woke up here." He finished explaining what he last remembered, leaving out the revelation of love.

"Pam tried to shoot me, but you got in the way. She got really angry, and aimed at me again, but I shot her before she was able to hit me. Other than that, you didn't miss much." Brennan talked with so much authority and so many facts. Sometimes he wished she'd have more emotion in her voice, but he couldn't help but smile at her choice of words.

Booth angled himself to face her, and tried to hide his face as he winced in pain. "You should get some sleep, Booth."

"Probably." He didn't want to sleep, but he was tired and sore, so maybe sleep wouldn't be such a bad thing. He woke up hours later, it was light now, but Brennan was no longer sitting in the chair beside him. Now Director Cullen sat there, and he was a far less pleasant person.

"Booth, you're going to die." _Hmm... straightforward, _Booth thought.

"I actually am not feeling all that bad, Director."

"You'll live, but we are going to fake your death." Booth looked at the director questioningly, then listened as Cullen explained an elaborate plan to take down an escaped criminal, who swore that the next time he saw Booth, would be at his funeral. "After we catch him, you'll be able to go back to your normal life, and see your friends and family." Cullen finished explaining.

"But what about Parker…I can't just leave him without a fath…" but he was cut off.

"I'll need a list of the people you want to know that your alive. This is an important matter, and it's about more than putting this man in jail. You're going to be saving lives in doing this, so keep the list short. The more people that know, the better the chances of getting caught."

No more than 5 minutes later, Booth was scribbling down names on a piece of paper. "You'll tell them yourself?"

"I'll see, it will be more likely that the list will go to Sweets. He's the greif counselor assigned to your colleages so when he tells the people on your list that your alive, it won't look suspicious." This made sense to Booth, but he wasn't excited, knowing that Sweets was probably going to analyze each and every person on the list, to see why Booth added them.

"Fine." Booth handed his list with a few names jotted down to the director who looked it over. It was just Parker and Rebecca, Booth's brother, and some other immediate family members…and Bones. She should know.

Director Cullen walked out of the room, and informed the nurses that nobody besides the medical personal was to enter Booth's room under any circumstances whatsoever. _Sounds like I'm going to be pretty lonely until after my funeral._

***

Two days later, Booth was cleared from the hospital and home sitting on his couch. There was a knock on the door. Director Cullen was standing there waiting for Booth. Under normal circumstances, Agent Booth would have met him at his office, but with the entire capture at risk, they decided to meet at Booth's apartment. The thought wasn't so appealing, and made Booth a little nervous, but he invited the director in and they sat at a table.

"You'll have a new name." Cullen said handing Booth a fake I.D. "You're going under cover as a Marine, and you'll be in the line up at your funeral."

"Won't somebody see me?" The plan sounded a little far fetched for booth, who thought he'd be hiding out somewhere less noticable.

"No, it's perfect. There's a large group of Marines, and know one will be looking for you, so you should be fine. When you see our man, casually exit the line up and grab him. Try not to be too dramatic, and if you can, wait til the ceremony's over."

"Yessir…" It made sense, but Booth still wasn't too sure.

"Over the next couple of days, you'll get fitted for an outfit, and attend a few practices, then were going to be ready for our takedown." Cullen continued on with some directions, tips, and basic ground rules, and Booth just sad there and nodded. He was actually looking forward to this because he hadn't had a lot of action in the past weeks, but he always hated the part about the rules.

Director Cullen left the apartment leaving a folder packed with papers for Booth to "look at and examine carefully." He sat at his kitchen table sifting through the papers. They were mostly pictures of the guy, information about his offenses, and layouts of the planned funeral. He looked at the schedual and made mental dates for the fitting, and practices. There was also a paper with dates, times, and places he could meet with Parker. He hung this one up on the fridge, then after taking it all in, he decided just to go to sleep.

***

**Thanks for reading it. Please review. The only reason I got this one up so quick was because of a reveiw i got. I probably won't upload anymore til I get back. Hope you enjoyed it :]**


	4. Clear as Glass

**Hey, I'm back! This is one of the chapters i worked on while i was camping. I had a random thought, that since Sweets was such a big part of the whole thing with him not telling Bones, maybe he should get to have his own chapter. Since this story isn't really about him, it's pretty short. Just a look into his thoughts.**

BANG!!! He looked around. _Who had been shot?_ Booth. Lance Sweets, a psychologist, was usually good at reading people, but at the moment everything was so crazed, he didn't even know what _he_ was thinking. He wanted to laugh- this is some sick joke. He wanted to slap Pam- she just shot Booth! Brennan already delt with Pam, so he decided to go with option 4- remain calm, someone had to.

___

It was a few days before the funeral. Maybe Sweets shouldn't have been so excited for a _funeral _, but the whole ordeal had made him feel important. His job from the director, was to help people cope with the loss of a loved one, but also to inform a select group of people that Booth was alive. Most of the people he was supposed to tell were in town for the ceremony and staying in a hotel nearby. It was pretty early, and chances were, they wouldn't have gone anywhere yet. Sweets jumped in his car and drove to the inn. He entered through the main lobby, caught the elevator and punched the button with his knuckle.

---

Sweets knocked lightly on Jared Booth's hotel door. It was a couple more knocks before anyone answered.

"Sweets?" Jared sounded tired, and upset.

"Hey, Jared. How are you doing?" the young doctor tried to hide some of his excitement.

"I'm doing ok."

"Good to hear. Do you mind if I come in and talk to you?" Sweets was already starting to angle his way into the room.

"Umm…sure, I guess…This isn't going to be some sort of weird therapy thing, is it? Because I think I can cope just fine on my own." Jared stated as Sweets walked by him.

Sweets plopped down into one of the big hotel chairs and Jared cam to sit in the one opposite him. " No therapy, I just need to explain something."

Sweets explained how Booth was alive and he was doing some undercover work. He took time to answer Jared's never ending questions with as much detail as he could give, without ruining the underground operation. The rest of the day pretty much followed that basic outline. He drove around town, talking to everyone on Booth's list, talking them through there confusion, and helping Parker understand what was happening. He was heading to the Jeffersonian to talk to Dr. Brennan, when a light clicked on in his therapist brain. It was too bright to ignore, and he couln't shut it off, so he did what the voice in his head told him he shouldn't do.

"Hello Dr. Brennan. How are you feeling?" Sweets was sitting in her office with her, feeling cunning, and thinking about all the scenarios that he was creating. He had aranged this meeting with her to tell her Booth was alive, but that damn light…now he was in here lying to her to see what kind of feelings he could read behing her mask.

"I'm fine Sweets…except I really should be working. This is a waste of my time." Brennan's face was blank.

"Are you sure you don't need to talk? I am, after all, your greif counselor." He was upset that he couldn't get her to say anything.

"Yes, I'm well aware of that. I have attended all the mandatory meetings that were arranged, and listened to you talk to all of us here, but It's all unneccisary, and now we are wasting even more time." Brennan was obviously upset. Sweets smiled in his head, he was definitly getting somewhere with this. _Pry_ he thought to himself. _Pry for information…she'll break down sometime. _

After a few more minutes of the same, Sweets let Brennan get back to work. He felt kind of bad for lying, and also for trying to make her hurt, but he wanted to know how she was feeling after the loss of Booth. After all, they loved eachother. Maybe he was the only one who could see it, but to him, it was clear as glass.

---

**I don't know if I like this chapter much, but i think it was important to know what our favorite psychiatrist was thinking throughout everything. I have more written, and I'll update soon, but please review, it helps me mold the chapters into my story :]**

** kk**


	5. What happened to you?

**I'm a terrible person, I haven't written in forever. My sincere apologies.**

**Well, I tried something new. I was having some writers block(or writers brick wall) and to get past it, I decided to write from a different angle.**

**So here we are, back from Brennan's point of view, but this time, I wrote in first person. **

**Since I don't know how well the first person thing went, I made this and extremely short chapter. The good news is, I know almost exactly what I want to happen next, all I need to know is whether or not to continue in first person, or to stick with my third party outsiders informational type writing.**

**Please tell me what you think.**

x-x-X-x-x

I watched the clock next to my bed. I waited exactly two minutes and thirty eight seconds, then the numbers finally read 6:00. I had been awake for a short while, waiting until it was a reasonable time to get up. It was still a little early for me, but it wasn't like I was going to be sleeping anyways. I pulled off my clothes and took a long shower. I thought about everything that was going on, with Sully here, and Booth not here. It was going to be difficult to work a case without him. Not that we haven't done it before, there were plenty of cases he wasn't there for, but he was always there incase we needed some FBI help.

I dried off and got dressed. I went with my usual attire- jeans , a tank top, and boots. My hair was almost dry by now, but I plugged in my blowdryer to finish it off. I grabbed a random necklace and clipped it on as I walked to my kitchen. I had some cereal and made coffee. I glanced up at the clock and sighed. I had about forty five minutes before I could leave without being ridiculously early.

I took my coffee, booted up my computer, and opened my writing program. Oh my god! My book. I hadn't thought about it up until now…am I going to kill off my fake Booth? I contemplated this thought til all that was left was my empty coffee mug, and a headache from trying to figure out what I was going to do. Giving up, I set the mug in the sink, shoved myself into a jacket, grabbed my keys and headed out the door to my car.

x-x-X-x-x

I walked to my office, long strides, empty mind pretending to be busy thinking about one thing or another.

"Dr. Brennan, my office please." I spun around in shock, and glared at Director Cullen, who was standing a few feet from the door of his office.

"Of course." I followed him into his office, and saw Sully sitting in a chair. Worried that I was being punished for hitting him, I took the seat next to him, and the director sat in his chair, masculine behing his huge desk.

He started to speak, then all of a sudden "Sully? What happened to you?"

"I…" He glanced at me, "…tripped, it sort of hurt." He looked at me again. I chose to stare forward, determined not to let him make me feel guilty.

"I punched him." It came out before I could even consider it. There was no way some stupid door was getting the credit for that damage.

"uhh…" I could tell sully was looking for words.

"Look, I don't need you to try and protect me" I used air quotes, "I'm willing to accept whatever punishment I might get for hitting you."

"Dr. Brennan, I'm sure you've apologized, but is-" the director started to speak, but I once again inturupted.

"Why would you assume I apologized? To apologize would imply that I regretted doing something, but I would do it again." I don't know why I couldn't just let this go.

There was a heavy silence, which was broken by the Cullen, sitting up straight, shoulders back, reclaiming his dominance…_men._ "Is this going to be a problem with you two?"

"Why would it be a problem? It's not like I wo-…." Not like I work with him! Ugh, the director's going to make us partners! Something so obvious, I didn't even think about it.

"Sully, you are to work with Dr. Brennan and her associates. I'm sure you two have resolved or will resolve whatever the hell is going on. I suggest doing that on your own time, not while working on a case." And with that Cullen slammed a case file onto his desk. Sully grabbed it and I followed him out the door.

**x-x-X-x-x**

**Forgive me. I warned you that it would be short. (Since I already know this, you don't have to review and tell me that it's short) I could really use some reviews on this one, as far as whether or not you enjoyed hearing from Brennan's first person point of view.**

I promis you that Booth is going to resurface within the next couple of chapters, so don't worry about Sully.

Again, sorry it took so long. Now that I know what I want to do next, it shouldn't take more than a couple of days to have the next chapter up, but that all depends on the first or third person issue.

Lots of Love

kk


	6. Glad you came to see me

I was rereading some of the story before attempting this chapter, and I've noticed that I kind of strayed from my original plan, and I'm now having trouble getting back on track, so I think from now on, I'm going to keep writing either first or third person from Brennan's point of view, which was my original plan anyways. I may throw in a chapter here and there from Booth's point, due to some reviews, but anyways…for now, here's another chapter.

---

I was in sweats and a tank top sitting Indian style in the middle of my living room. I had to move my coffee table, but it seemed worth it. Relaxation techniques tend to use up some space. I had spent my day reviewing the new case with Sully, and I did not enjoy it whatsoever. It was the first case I had been assigned since Booth's death. I'd been working more from the 'Doe' family. Working with Sully was much more painful than I'd expected…or wanted to admit. He just wasn't Booth. He worked differently, talked differently, used different techniques…not that they were especially bad, it was just different.

Not having gotten far on the case, (and knowing that if Booth were working with me, we would have made progress) I decided against my normal ways, and acted purely on emotional instinct. I changed into jeans, grabbed my jacket, ran out to my car, and drove to Booth's apartment. Maybe being there would help me figure out what to do on the case.

I parked and dug through some paperwork I kept sitting on my passenger seat. I took the current case file up with me, and stood silently for a moment outside his door. _This isn't going to feel weird is it?_ I used his key (I had stolen it before people starting going through his belongings) and opened the door. I walked in, relocked it and stood motionless, still facing the secured door. Either I was going crazy, or I was hearing cartoons, and since I had no other symptoms of a psychosomatic illness…

"Bones?" I didn't want to look, afraid that I would turn around and find that I was in fact hearing things. I turned to face the noise, and saw Booth sitting on his couch eating Chinese food. Why was he allowed to eat Chinese when it made me depressed and sick feeling?

"Booth… "I didn't know what to say. No, I knew what to say, I wanted to tell him that he was alive, that I loved him, and that he wasn't allowed to leave me again. The real problem was that I couldn't say any of these things, because surely he knew he was alive, and the rest was illogical and stupid.

"Yeah, Bones, it's me…How'd you get in?" he crossed the floor and hugged me. He's alive and asking how I got in?

"I…have a key…but-", what to say, what to say…. He walked me to the couch, pulled me down next to him and gave me a box of chow mien.

I couldn't eat at a time like this! "Booth…you're alive." There really wasn't anything else to say.

"Yeah, I am…wait, you didn't know that?" I shook my head. _Was I supposed to know?_

"I know I'm the smart one, but can you please start from the beginning? And go slow…" I felt like I was missing out on a joke or a story that everyone else knew…did other people know?

Booth brought me a glass of water, and told me the whole story. He told me about the man who was supposed to show up at the funeral. He told me about his faked death. He told me about the plan. He told me about the list.

"So what do you think?" He sounded like he was asking her opinion about a movie or a book, rather than life changing underground national security operations.

"Why can't I know the man's name? And why didn't he show up?"

"I told you Bones, National Security."

"Hodgins would have a field day with that one." Seemed an appropriate thing to say…it's not like it wasn't true.

Booth smiled "Wow Bones, you made a joke. I don't know why the man didn't show, all I know is that the crime rate has increased significantly since it went public that I died. Enough about that though, how are you? How are things back at the Jeffersonian? I kind of miss that place."

"Cullen made Sully my new partner, we're working a case. When can you come back?" he grimaced one cue when I said 'Sully'.

"Well, we're going underground to catch this guy. Now that he thinks I'm dead, he things he can get away with whatever he wants, so the idea is that we want him to continue thinking he's on top of the world until we catch him." Booth was just using a lot of fancy words to say 'I have no idea'.

"Oh,"

"Not that I'm not happy to see you and all, I really am Bones, you have no idea, but maybe you should get going. I mean, you can stay later if you want, but I know you have work tomorrow and I wouldn't want to cause…sleep deprivation, or something like that." Booth sounded nervous, which in turn made me a little nervous.

I glanced at my watch…it was getting late. "Yeah, you're probably right." I stood up and walked with Booth to the door. I REALLY didn't want to leave, I just got my partner and friend back, and now I was just walking away. When we reached the door I turned around to face him. "I'm really glad you're not dead, Booth."

"Thanks Bones," he smiled his smile, "me too."

"You shouldn't have taken that bullet for me. I could of-" I glanced down at my shoes.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, Bones," he lifted my chin gently, "Shhh…we don't have to talk about this now. We'll have this conversation when it's not late at night, ok?" I was thankful for this, seeing as how I was tired, and just recently found out Booth was even alive.

I kissed his cheek, "Thank you, Booth." I turned and started to walk out into the hall, but he grabbed my arm, spun me around and before I even realized what was happening, it had happened. His arms were wrapped around my waist and his lips were pressed firmly to mine. My emotions were going crazy. For just a split second, I was shocked, but before that had time to set in, I mindlessly rested my hands on his muscular FBI trained abs, and almost kissed him back except…

"I'm sorry…" Booth pulled away. He was inspecting his shoes, and almost looked…well…nervous. I'd never seen him as the vulnerable childlike Booth; the look on his face made my heart hurt, but at the same time, I couldn't help but giggle at him.

I grabbed his hand and looked him in the eyes; he glanced up, making a connection for an almost-awkward second…and turned away again. I wanted so badly to admit that I liked it; that I wanted more, but hadn't I let my feelings do enough for one night? The rational explanation for why he kissed me, was because he hasn't been able to have human contact for almost two weeks. It probably didn't even mean anything to him, and I certainly don't want to make a big deal of nothing…do I? I let go of his hand.

"Maybe I should…" now I was the one staring at my feet. For once in my life I couldn't think of anything to say.

"yeah." He sounded so empty. I turned and started to leave. "Hey Bones…"

"Yes?"

"I'm really glad you came to see me."

"Well, I didn't know you were going..." to be here, was what I planned to say, but he cut me off.

"I know, Bones, but you came."

With that I smiled and walked to my car. He watched me drive down the street, and once I was far enough away, I pulled off to the side of the road, and cut the engine. It couldn't be safe to be driving when everything was a blur and you had a heart racing to get somewhere it couldn't go, and skipping a beat every now and then.

------

**I'm so sorry that took so long to update. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but I think it's pretty decent. reviews would be lovely.**

**also, as an apology for the long wait, i wrote and uploaded chapter 7 so you don't have to wait.**

kk


	7. Chinese food

**Warning: I uploaded chapter 6 and chapter 7. Make sure you read chapter 6!!!**

**this chapter is my thanks for staying with me, even though I took forever to update.**

-x-x-X-x-x-

I'd eventually made it home. I clicked on the lights, and walked straight to my room, where I laid on my back and stared up at my ceiling fan. Nothing made sense. I graduated top of all my classes. I was smart. I had all kinds of degrees. My knowledge was seemingly endless. Yet here I lay, alone and confused. There were no courses on emotion like this. Well, at least none that I'd taken. Generally, I'd go to Booth and have him tell me all about human emotions and feelings, and I'd give him all the scientific reasons, that had the same outcome, but he'd insist on his way. Well, I couldn't go to Booth now. I could talk to Angela though. Did she know about Booth? For his sake, I'd have to not talk to her either; at least until I knew it wouldn't ruin his underground operation.

I sat on my couch in my office, drinking my second, no third, cup of coffee. There were a couple boxes from bone storage sitting on the floor, and a file or two on the coffee table, all of which were untouched. They seemed to be staring at me, begging, wanting so badly for someone to know. Know who they were, know their stories. Someone needed to tell their families. I, of course, was that someone. It would be selfish of me to do nothing, when people who have waited, wondering for so long, needed to know what happened to their loved ones…yet here I sat.

"Sweetie, why are you sitting here? What's going on?" Angela once again dragged me away from my thoughts.

"Oh, Angela, I was just about to get started on...a doe." I wish I was more believable.

"In here? You wouldn't be lying to me, would you?"

"No, I was just going to take the box of remains to the platform, and start…" I was getting up when she raised her voice.

"Sit." Jeez, she sounded like she was training a dog…but it worked. I sat. She sat next to me.

"Brennan, what's going on?"

"Nothing, Angela. I just…I didn't sleep. That's all."

"Bren, if you didn't sleep that means something was really bothering you…what happened?"

I wanted to tell her, but I didn't know if I could. I needed to talk to Booth before I did anything. So instead I changed the subject.

"We should get to work. I'm going to need you to try and do a facial reconstruction." I handed her the skull, then started towards the platform, remains in hand, leaving Angela in my office.

The rest of the day went better. No more questions, and I kept my mind focused o n work, rather than letting the day go by in a blur of thought, that I wasn't quite ready to deal with.

I walked up to my building, keyed the lock, and walked in to find Booth sitting on my couch, eating Chinese food, none the less.

"Booth, what are you doing here?"

"Aren't you glad to see me?" he asked, and smiled his childlike 'I just beat you at a game of candy land' grin.

"It helps that you brought food." I smiled back. I grabbed two beers from my fridge and sat on the couch next to Booth. "What _are _you doing here?" It was a reasonable question.

"I got lonely, figured you were probably so busy working that you haven't eaten yet."

Chinese food was good. I hadn't eaten it since Booth had 'died' and it tasted better now than it used to.

"That's it?" I said, as I swallowed a piece of chicken. It seemed like there was more.

"Well…no. I just wanted to tell you, that I'm coming back to work tomorrow."

"You caught the guy?"

"No, but I convinced Cullen to let you and the squints help. We're not getting anywhere, and you guys are the smartest people around."

We spent the rest of the night talking, and at some point we fell asleep, because his feet were propped up on the coffee table, and my head was on his thigh. If I wasn't half asleep, I probably would have realized this , and gotten up, but I was fading back into unconsciousness, and I was much to comfortable to move. So I let myself fall back asleep, back to the peace I was enjoying, taking in the contentment that I might never have had again.

-x-x-X-x-x-

**I was inspired when I wrote this, but I'm not sure how it turned out. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Believe it or not, they are what help me move my story along.**

**Guess what! - I've already started chapter 8! My muse has been with me recently, and I've already got chapters 8 and 9 planned out. I'm in the writing stages :] I'd write them and upload them now, but I'm tired, and they'de come out wierd that way.**

please review!!  
kk


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